Full Orchestra - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1018872 Composed by Benjamin Harry Sajo. 20th Century,Contemporary. Score and parts. 38 pages. Benjamin Sajo #6056047. Published by Benjamin Sajo (A0.1018872). Programme Notes: Icarus Also Flew takes its title from the first line of the poem Failing and Flying by Jack Gilbert. He is referring to the classical myth of Daedalus and Icarus, an inventive father and son who bravely escape from their imprisonment in a tower by collecting the disposed feathers of seabirds, then fashion wings out of them and fly away. While the story is often treated as a morality tale--listen to your elders, don’t get cocky like the young man, Icarus, who, in such an understandable state of elation, ascended too close to the sun thus causing the wings to melt and his tumbling to his Mediterranean death--what Jack Gilbert reminds us is how regardless of one’s failure, the sheer transcendental experience of mortal flight remains glorious and unforgettable. Icarus’s fall was not into a legacy of disdain and oblivion, but in truth, he had come to the end of his triumph.  This piece was the first of a series I composed during the Covid-19 quarantine conditions of 2020, to serve as potential contemporary preludes for each of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies--his two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was this year!--though they can all stand on their own on any program. The connection, in this case, is with his celebrated fifth symphony in C minor--the Fate symphony, as it is commonly known. I’ll let the listener find their own connections.About the Composer:Benjamin Sajo (b. 1988) is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music, as well as an educator. Since developing a fiercely independent creative voice upon the completion of his studies at Western (2010) and McGill Universities (2013), he continues to find inspiration from the intersection of mythology, art, and nature upon the contemporary human experience. In 2019, he released his premiere album of original music, The Great War Sextet: Canadian War Poetry with Trombone & Strings, with support from the Ontario Arts Council. He is a member of SOCAN and the League of Canadian Composers.

Full Orchestra - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1018900 Composed by Benjamin Harry Sajo. 20th Century,Contemporary. Score and parts. 79 pages. Benjamin Sajo #6056141. Published by Benjamin Sajo (A0.1018900). Programme Notes: Icarus Also Flew takes its title from the first line of the poem Failing and Flying by Jack Gilbert. He is referring to the classical myth of Daedalus and Icarus, an inventive father and son who bravely escape from their imprisonment in a tower by collecting the disposed feathers of seabirds, then fashion wings out of them and fly away. While the story is often treated as a morality tale--listen to your elders, don’t get cocky like the young man, Icarus, who, in such an understandable state of elation, ascended too close to the sun thus causing the wings to melt and his tumbling to his Mediterranean death--what Jack Gilbert reminds us is how regardless of one’s failure, the sheer transcendental experience of mortal flight remains glorious and unforgettable. Icarus’s fall was not into a legacy of disdain and oblivion, but in truth, he had come to the end of his triumph. This piece was the first of a series I composed during the Covid-19 quarantine conditions of 2020, to serve as potential contemporary preludes for each of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies--his two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was this year!--though they can all stand on their own on any program. The connection, in this case, is with his celebrated fifth symphony in C minor--the Fate symphony, as it is commonly known. I’ll let the listener find their own connections.About the Composer:Benjamin Sajo (b. 1988) is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music, as well as an educator. Since developing a fiercely independent creative voice upon the completion of his studies at Western (2010) and McGill Universities (2013), he continues to find inspiration from the intersection of mythology, art, and nature upon the contemporary human experience. In 2019, he released his premiere album of original music, The Great War Sextet: Canadian War Poetry with Trombone & Strings, with support from the Ontario Arts Council. He is a member of SOCAN and the League of Canadian Composers.

Full Orchestra - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1025416 Composed by Jehad Choate. Contemporary,Jazz,Latin. Score and parts. 45 pages. Jehad Choate #5818515. Published by Jehad Choate (A0.1025416). Based off the texts of Joseph Campbell, this is a musical representation of the hero’s journey with a twist: The hero becomes fully aware of the cycle they are both blessed and cursed to follow. With every step, the hero fights the tropes of mythology, but can they escape their own fate?Movement I: The Calling introduces our main theme naively. It's done in a style reflective of all action/adventure genres: romantically boastful, one dimensional and confident. But as the call to adventure imposes itself on the hero, the hero begins to think that all is not what it seems to be.Movement II: The Motions is a set of trials where the hero experiences great loss, triumphant battles, and a renewed image. Yet, that is just the cycle they expected and its trite conclusion and three act distinction troubles the hero.Movement III: A Fool’s Reckoning is a response to being a pawn in someone else’s story. It takes all learned elements and tries to distort them to be something new and different. But what if this transformation was all part of the same cycle? The hero fights until they forget what they fight for. Reluctantly resilient, they carry on wondering if there was ever anything heroic about them at all.